Europe
Pritchard is a leading Eurosceptic. Pritchard defines himself as a "main stream Eurosceptic".
He was one of the so-called leading “Tory Rebels” who oversaw the largest post-war defeat of any Conservative government concerning a European Referendum.
Pritchard has called for an “in out referendum” on the European Union. Central to Pritchard’s argument is that “The majority of Britons living today have never had a say on Europe”, what Pritchard refers to as “the great disenfranchised”.
Pritchard was one of the architects of the motion calling for a ‘real terms cut’ in the EU’s Multiannual budget in 2012. He was joined by fellow eurosceptic MP, Mark Reckless, to draft the so-called ‘Reckless-Pritchard amendment’ which saw David Cameron’s government defeated over the issue.
Pritchard calimed that the vote would “strengthen David Cameron’s hand in Brussels”. During the EU Budget debate in the House of Commons he said, “One way in which the Prime Minister’s hand can be strengthened is by having a united Parliament rather than a disunited Parliament when he goes to Brussels to negotiate on my birthday, 22 November.”
Read more about this topic: Mark Pritchard (politician)
Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“We go to Europe to be Americanized.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The heritage of the American Revolution is forgotten, and the American government, for better and for worse, has entered into the heritage of Europe as though it were its patrimony—unaware, alas, of the fact that Europe’s declining power was preceded and accompanied by political bankruptcy, the bankruptcy of the nation-state and its concept of sovereignty.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Positively I sit here, and look at Europe sink, first one deck disappearing, then another, and the whole ship slowly plunging bow-down into the abyss; until the nightmare gets to be howling. The Roman Empire was a trifle to it.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)